Out of the Cage
by VictoriaKiss
Summary: Set in Season 4. Angelus is terrorizing Team Angel. Contains lots of Angelus Fun!
1. So, It Starts

Note:

Warning: Contains rape, physical and mental torture, character deaths, and no happy endings. Also contains spoilers.

All of these amazing characters and parts of the plot belong to Joss Whedon, who is a God.

This takes place in Angel Season 4. There are some references to stuff that happened in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 2. So if you haven't seen that, you might be a little confused at one part.

Cordelia isn't evil and Angel didn't willingly give up his soul, it is ripped out by dark magic and he doesn't know who removed it. At the beginning of the story none of the characters are aware that Angel has gone evil. Lorne, Gunn, Fred, and Cordelia live at the hotel.

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Angelus stood in the shadows beside a coffee shop, staring out at the world as it passed him by. He watched and waited, but none of them were quite right. He considered a young redhead, a muscular black man, a teenage girl with a tattoo of a dragonfly on her shoulder…but not one of the passing pedestrians pleased him. Normally when he was just looking to feed and not torture he didn't care who he picked. But this was about to be his first feed since he'd had his soul removed. He wanted it to be just right. Then he saw her. She was probably in her mid twenties, with blonde hair pulled into a messy bun. She faintly reminded him of Darla. And that sealed her fate.

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Angelus pushed open Cordelia's bedroom door; full from the girl he had first chosen and a family he had run into on his way back to the hotel. He stood silently, unmoving over Cordy's bed. Watching her sleep and taking in her delicious scent. Then he moved to the bedside and crouched close to Cordelia's face, planting a gentle kiss on her lips and placing a folded piece of paper on her pillow. He imagined how everyone would react when they went downstairs the next morning…the screams, and the panic…. he could hardly wait.

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"After the break we will hear from the esteemed and highly recognized Doctor Chris Gerien and his views on the permanent darkness that has gripped the city for the pass few days. So I suggest you stick around and…."

Cordelia rolled over in bed so she was facing her alarm clock. Without opening her eyes her hand searched blindly around her night table before finally managing to locate and hit the snooze button. Peering out of one eye she saw the red letters on the clock read 7:30 AM.

Cordelia could remember a time when she would sleep in all day on weekends. But with the beast roaming around and bringing on permanent midnight, everything had been so hectic lately. Cordy had taken to waking up early so she could savor a little alone time before everyone else woke up and the hotel got busy and loud. She pulled herself into a sitting position with her legs dangling over the edge of the bed. That's when she noticed a folded piece of paper that had been knocked onto the floor. Reaching down and carefully unfolding it, she stared at the pencil drawing on the paper. It was a picture of Connor, his eyes looked glassy and empty and his mouth hung open.

"Where have I seen something like this before?" Cordelia wondered to herself. She knew she had seen a picture like this before, she just couldn't place it. And then it hit her. Sunnydale, Buffy, Jenny Calendar….Angelus. She could picture the paper with the drawing of Jenny perfectly. Her eyes staring into nothing, her head slumped at and awkward angle. So much like this drawing on Connor.

Cordelia was on her feet, throwing open her door and racing through the halls of the hotel. This couldn't be happening, not now, not Connor. As she flew down the stairs to the lobby, she already knew what she would find.

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Fred stumbled down the hallway, still wearing her pajamas and her eyes filled with sleep. A commotion outside her room had awoken her and she was curious to see who was running through the halls this early in the morning. She reached the balcony overlooking the lobby and leaned over to see who was down there. She froze; staring down in horror at the scene beneath her. There was blood everywhere, on the walls, the floor, and the bodies. Connor lay on the floor beside the hotel desk, his eyes open vacantly, and his limbs splayed out beside him. And Cordelia lay on top of his chest, face down, and her arms wrapped around Angel's son. Then suddenly Cordelia lifted her head up from Connor's chest and slowly looked up at the balcony. Cordy wasn't dead.

Fred flew down the stairs throwing herself at Cordelia and wrapping her arms around her in a bear hug.

"Thank God. Oh thank God. Cordy….you're alive! I thought you were….no….I couldn't, it would have been so…you're alive! But Connor…who could have done this? It's so horrible!" As Fred babbled on, her sentences mismatched and incoherent, Cordelia just stood limply in Fred's hug. Staring into space.


	2. Coping

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Cordelia lay on her bed fast asleep. She tossed and turned, haunted by Connor's corpse, and the blood that had covered the hotel lobby. Lorne sat at her bedside with his hands buried in his palms. He only ever looked up when Cordelia gave a particularly loud moans or cries in her sleep.

Wesley, Gunn and Fred entered the room, Fred and Gunn were clutching tranquilizer guns, and Wes was holding a shotgun. They locked the door behind them and found chairs around Cordy's bedside.

"We've searched the entire hotel top to bottom. No sign of Angelus. But then again, even if Angelus were here, if he didn't want to be found there is no way we would succeed." Wesley looked grave and pale as he filled Lorne in.

"We…we can't be sure that it was Angelus that did this. I mean, remember all the evil that has taken over the town? It could have been any one of them that…" Fred couldn't finish her sentence.

"Connor gets brutally murdered, and Angel disappears. No…it's looking like Cordelia's suspicions were right. How did she know it was Angelus right away anyways?" Gunn asked.

"When she woke up this morning, she found this picture on her pillow." Wesley handed the drawing of Connor to Gunn.

"So? What does this have to do with anything?" Gunn failed to see the connection.

"In Sunnydale, when Angelus was last loose. He murdered a teacher at the school Cordelia and Buffy attended. He left a drawing almost identical to this one for them to find. I think that there is no doubt who is responsible for Connor's death."

For the next half hour, the four of them discussed what they should do. Fred, Wesley and Lorne thought killing Angel was out of the question. Gunn thought they had no choice but to stake him after he had killed one of their own. Part way through the discussion, Cordelia awoke. But she kept still and silent in an effort to fake sleeping. She listened sadly to the group arguing, and if she hadn't been trying so hard to fool them into believing that she still slept, she would have burst into sobs right there and then.

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End file.
